Technical Field
The present invention relates to a thermoelectric element, a thermoelectric module and a method of manufacturing the thermoelectric element.
Related Art
A thermoelectric element including a thermoelectric conversion layer made of a filled-skutterudite-type alloy and a thermoelectric module using such a thermoelectric element are known.
As a conventional art, in a thermoelectric element including a thermoelectric conversion layer made of a filled-skutterudite-type alloy, there is a technique in which titanium layers are provided on both end surfaces of the thermoelectric element for suppressing diffusion of elements at a joint portion between the thermoelectric element and an electrode (refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2003-309294).
By the way, a coefficient of linear expansion of titanium has a tendency to be largely different from a coefficient of linear expansion of a filled-skutterudite-type alloy. For this reason, in a thermoelectric element in which a thermoelectric conversion layer made of a filled-skutterudite-type alloy and a diffusion suppressing layer made of titanium are directly laminated, there are some cases in which cracking or peeling occurs due to a difference between amounts of coefficient of linear expansion of respective layers.
An object of the present invention is to suppress cracking in a thermoelectric element including a thermoelectric conversion layer made of a filled-skutterudite-type alloy.